1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure and embodiments relate to a reticle manipulating device with an at least substantially closed housing for maintaining clean-room conditions inside the housing, an input/output station for introducing and discharging reticles in and out of the housing, and at least one functional unit arranged in the housing for impressing a predetermined function on the reticles, wherein, by means of a manipulating device also arranged inside the housing, the reticles can be manipulated in the housing.
2. Brief Description of Earlier Related Developments
So-called reticles are required in the production of electronic components. These involve exposure masks or photomasks, with which structures lying in the micrometer and nanometer range are imprinted on semiconductors or other substrates in the projection exposure process. It is frequently provided to produce specific electronic components in batches, for which reason, the reticles are used only for specific times during the production. In between times, the exposure masks must be intermediately stored. Stocker devices have been previously known for this purpose, in which a plurality of reticles can be intermediately stocked. Such stocker devices of the prior art, which are usually called stockers, have an essentially closed housing for this purpose. The housing is provided with openings only for the input and output of air and for introducing and discharging the reticles. Clean-room conditions prevail inside the housing, by which means a contamination of the reticles will be avoided.
It is known sufficiently that in the manufacture of electronic components any ever so small dirt particle and any ever so slight damage to the reticle leads to costly rejects. It is thus desired to avoid dirt or damage. For this reason, it has become known to examine reticles for contamination directly prior to introducing them into the production process. If dirt is found, then it can be removed from the reticle by a cleaning unit. A unit in which both a cleaning device and a detection device are arranged in a stocking device for reticles is known from WO 02/01292 A1 of the same Applicant.
The reticles are usually transported in a specific, standardized transport box during production from their storage place to a processing plant and back again. A plurality of such transport boxes exist, whereby reticle manipulating devices of the prior art are usually equipped only for one or at most a few types of transport boxes.
It appears to be a disadvantage in these units of the prior art that they do not offer possibilities for responding to different application conditions. No measures are provided for adapting the device to changing application conditions.